Maya Angelou Quotes

You can't take yourself too seriously.

I'm very competitive, but I know when not to be competitive. I know how to have fun, but I know when it's time to get serious. That makes things a lot easier.

Once you take yourself too seriously the art will suffer.

Whatever the situation at hand, that's what I'm dealing with and trying to be true to it in that moment.

You can't take yourself too seriously with anything.

I am not in yesterday; I am not in tomorrow. I am right now.

I'm just going to play whatever game is in front of me.

As long as I know my head's in the right place, my feet are on the ground, I think I'll be fine.

I'm about the present.

Only when your consciousness is totally focused on the moment you are in can you receive whatever gift, lesson, or delight that moment has to offer.

I do not see myself, I never make plans, I never set goals, and I never do that kind of stuff; I don't like to futurize, I barely know what I will do tomorrow, and because there is a working plan here, I've never futurized because life always surprises me with things even better.

It is a challenge at times, but trying to stay centered and balanced helps me keep things in perspective.

I'm tough, I'm pushy, I'm really loud. I used to spend a lot of time thinking about it. But we only have so much brain capacity, so if I'm spending part of my brain thinking about how I'm acting, A, I'm not spending all of my brain doing, and B, I'm not actually in that moment.

A great hallmark of mental wellness is the ability to be in the present moment, fully and with no thoughts of being elsewhere.

The one serious conviction that a man should have is that nothing is to be taken too seriously.

What I love about photography, and it's the same thing I love about acting, really, is that it forces you, like, right into the moment, where you can't be distracted, where you can't be, like, thinking about other things or ahead of yourself or behind yourself.

Washington's got to loosen up a little bit—learn to laugh at itself a little.

There are so many surprises in my life; I don't take anything for granted. I enjoy every experience that comes; I don't think too far ahead.

The moment is everything. Don't think about tomorrow; don't think about yesterday: think about exactly what you're doing right now and live it and dance it and breath it and be it.

I am a woman of the moment.

Inevitably, when directors work with me on a set, they say, 'This isn't what I was expecting. I thought you were going to be very serious.' But I like to stay loose and have a good time and not take myself too seriously. I think, otherwise, you get in your own way.

I think I've learned not to take everything so seriously and just try to focus on the work the most.

I'm a person who lives very in the moment.

If you take yourself too seriously, you've got no chance in this job. You cannot take yourself seriously.

I try to live in the moment and not overthink things because then you start putting yourself in situations that you don't want to be in pressure-wise.